Estonians worried about identity in EU - poll

More than 60 per cent of the respondents of the poll carried out by the Estonian European Movement wanted the EU debate to focus on maintaining Estonia's identity. Also, the shared competence of Estonia and the EU and the delegating of rights to the EU were considered priority issues. Thirty per cent of those interviewed stressed the importance of economic issues in the EU debate. The pollster used a five-point scale to measure the extent to which people would allow the EU to make decisions in certain walks of life. In no case did the figure rise above three points, which means that people preferred shared responsibility. In general, the public’s opinion of the EU was improving, but the respondents were concerned about the post-accession relations. The main concern was whether Estonia would remain independent after accession. The other most important concern of the respondents was whether the EU was on a sufficiently high level in economic terms.